The Traveling Pirate: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont . . . Check!

I'm a few days behind on my blogging as I have been pretty darn busy.

On Friday, I headed up to Ogunquit, Maine, a coastal town. During the winter, I would imagine this town is about the size of Wheatfield. In summer, however, holy traffic jam, Batman!

Ogunquit has a paved walkway along the shoreline called the Marginal Way. The Marginal Way is about a mile and a half long. As I walked, the weather was hot and the sun was shining. I was hot, sweaty, and desperately in need of water. Luckily for me, at the end of the Marginal Way, are two restaurants. I stopped for some refreshment and some lunch-a lobster roll. I found the lobster roll to be . . . marginal. It consisted of a toasted hot dog bun about 4-5 inches in length, filled with lobster, and nothing else. It was kind of boring for $18. All it came with were a few chips and a pickle. But, I was hungry and thirsty and it hit the spot. While I was at the restaurant, I used the facilities to make my trip to Maine official and change into my swimsuit. On the walk back, I stopped at one of the small beaches found between the rocks and relaxed for about an hour. Below are the pictures from Maine.

After an hour on the beach in Maine, I decided it was time to get in a little hiking at Mt. Agimenticus. It was supposed to be a short mile hike up to the summit. As I was driving there, I couldn't help but notice that I seemed to be climbing in altitude. Whoops! I accidentally drove to the summit. Apparently I missed a sign along the way for the hike to the top. Once I reached the top, I did a short hike and enjoyed the view. Here is a picture of the view from Mt. A, as it is called locally (and who could blame them).

On the way back from Maine, I decided I better go ahead and stop in New Hampshire and make that state visit official. I ended up picking up a delicious Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream bar and headed back home for the evening.

Yesterday, I decided it was time to visit Vermont. This was a little longer drive, a little over 2 hours. While in Vermont, I headed to Jelly Mill Falls. I lounged there for just under 2 hours and (unfortunately) met an old hippie that I will refer to as Mr. Mushroom (as I think he may have been on 'shrooms). Mr. Mushroom was probably in his mid-sixties and was wearing sandals, a ball cap over his straggley, gray, shoulder length hair and swimming trunks. He was sporting a big buddah belly and an aire of strangeness. He started talking to me and informed me that he'd been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of poetry coming into his mind lately. He then decided to recite one of the poems which ended with the line, "I swear to Uncle Chi!" He then proceeded to describe the slippery nature of the rocks and promptly proceeded to fall on his ass in a puddle of water. I attempted to end the conversation but he was persistent for about the next 15 minutes. Then, luckily for me, other people showed up and he was able to re-direct his focus to them and the remainder of my time at the falls was peaceful. I spent the most of my time reading my biking, hiking, and tourist books as well as the regular book I'm reading (Outliers). Pictures of the waterfall are below. The rock that has the yellow backpack and blue jacket is the rock I was lounging on.

I then planned to make my way to Mt. Snow to do a little hiking. A detour and 3 miles on a mountainous dirt logging road with steep grades later and I scrapped those plans. On the way back to the Boston area, I did pass over the French King Bridge (see picture below) which is over the Connecticut River. Which French King? I don't know. It didn't say.

When I got back to Steph's area, I decided to go to the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. Sculpture is my favorite form of art and I really enjoy abstract sculpture and thinking about what it could be. There were some really thought provoking ones at deCordova. I wish I could have seen them all but the sun set and the park closed. See pictures of some sculptures below.